Flashbacks
“And if you don't give in to our demands, then they will pay the price.” The madman said to the camera. “Your former lover, who has nothing to do with your crimes, and your bothersome little brother here will pay the price.”
So that was it, Jane and Loki we're being held hostage to lure Thor into what was most surely a trap. But Thor was worlds away, and would probably not get the message, which meant that these people would continue to hold them hostage, maybe hurt them a bit to convince the thunderer to hurry. Which was bullshit.
They had their hands chained to the wall behind them and were on the floor of a white room (to make the videos better, Jane guessed. As time went by they became more and more terrible, and those people liked it. Liked having them looking emaciated and dirty and pleading. At some point they fed Loki something that gone off, and never cleaned the vomit off his shirt. It was a horrible situation.
The only consolations Jane had was that somebody must have been looking for her by now, and that Loki was still very much convinced that he would get them both out, that they would be able to escape. The first he almost did it a bunch of times, but these people had a “sorcerer” of their own, and he was very good at both undoing Loki's magic, and doing things that hurt or weakened Thor's brother, who'd already looked pretty bad when they'd been snatched.
Jane didn't know what to think about Loki, how to feel about him, not at first at least. The thing was that the man was a terrorist, and a villain, and he attacked the earth with an army of aliens... but he also had saved her life, and got a grievously wound while trying to help them. (She asked about how he was even alive, and was merely shown a big scar and told, in a whisper, “I almost wasn't”)
And apparently after his supposed death he'd helped Thor again, for good this time, and now they were friends, because Loki was good now. Still, that didn't make up for all he did, not in her mind. At least, not at first. Then she'd learned, after talking to Loki and reading between the lines, that the invasion hadn't been all his choice and there had been some threatening and some hostage-ing going on before that happened.
And then one day, when all seemed lost and Loki looked to be about to keel over, Jane managed to get her thing wrist out of the chain, and managed to get her other hand free, too. She freed her companion (no matter what Loki had done in the past she couldn't leave him there, it was inhumane) and he managed to open the door of the cell, but in the middle of their escape they were stopped by the “sorcerer”.
The fight was short. Jane managed to escape and Loki told her to run, that he'd be right behind when he got rid of that guy. He seemed to have the upper hand when he faced the sorcerer, but then....
“Remember”
And suddenly he was back there, falling in the void, being played with and tortured, suddenly they had him and he was defenseless, feeling like he'd been forgotten... All you will know is pain, and we won't even let you die.
The man had his hand on Loki's forehead and Loki seemed to be in great pain, eyes rolled back in his head, a deaf scream in his throat.
“Remember when you fell, forever.” Loki screamed again. “Remember they took you, remember when you were under their mercy. Remember what they did.”
They were toying with his mind, toying with his body, using him, using him for their horrible ends, and he'd been falling for so long, and they were burning him, he really tried to fight back but couldn't, couldn't, why did no one come for him?
And Jane could have left, the man was distracted with Loki, there was an open door...
“Remember when you died. Remember that he will always be your master. Remember.”
Loki was there again. The pain was excruciating. He was young, and hurt and he had only meant to die. Why couldn't he have at least that.
Loki screamed again, the memories clearly hurting him, badly. Jane took one of her shoes and knocked out the sorcerer. He probably wouldn't stay down for long, but hopefully long enough for them to leave.
“Loki?”
Loki's eyes were unfocused and bloodshot.
“Please, don't...”
“I won't hurt you... It's me, Jane.”
“I'll do it... whatever you want...”
Just free me from this prison. Release me or kill me.
Loki clearly wasn't with her anymore, but lost in a memory.
And then there was people shooting at them, and Jane had to coerce Loki into running, outside with her. They grazed one of her legs, and Loki was shot in a shoulder, and was now barely conscious. This day was getting better and better. Jane was trying to get Loki functional again (his magic would be very welcome to get as far away from this place as possible, quick) but Loki was lost in memories, sometimes screaming, sometimes crying, sometimes begging, eyes still unfocused.
I am a puppet, a stupid plaything, idiot prince, you're only a tool, idiot prince, you've hurt everyone, idiot prince, you're our slave now.
Jane stopped a cab, asked the driver to leave her at Avenger HQ, hoping that somebody with money to pay for the ride would be there. And to pay for the damage done by the blood, too. Both of them were bleeding pretty badly and now Loki was apologising profusely, and Jane was trying calm him down and stop the bleeding... They were both too tired and too weak from captivity, nothing was coming out right.
And then suddenly they were there and she called for help, and Captain America and the red headed lady whose name she couldn't remember were there, and they would make everything okay.
Natasha (that was the lady's name) paid the cab, with some extra to keep it quiet, and the Captain took Loki in his arms, as he couldn't stay standing anymore.
Loki saw something blue in the eyes of his saviour and seemed appeased.
“Thor.... will you... will you stop them?”
“Loki, I...”
“Please... I can't.... they are so many, I can't.. I can't win.... Thor...”
“Don't worry. They won't hurt you anymore, I won't let them.”
Loki passed out. Jane was almost grateful.
The so-called intergalactic alliance, who had meant to dissect Thor to try and figure out how he could manipulate thunder and if they could make some sort of Mjolnir using his genetic information, were disbanded and some of them killed as the Avengers, led by Natasha did a flash operation to finish them.
Steve stayed behind, looking after both prisoners. Jane was glad to have somebody with whom she could talk about and Loki, who was in and out of consciousness and often still mistook the past for the present, was glad to have around a version of Thor who was forgiving, and caring.
Day by day they started to recover. They slept, they ate, Loki stopped having all those flashbacks, and apologised to the Captain profusely. Steve just smiled “I'm happy that I could be here for the times Thor wasn't”. It was... bittersweet.
Jane and Loki said goodbye one week later. It felt odd – they'd been practically each other's world in the time they were captive and now... they didn't even know if they would see each other again.
“Loki” Jane said, when the other was already walking away “I would have liked to have you as a brother in law, you know?”
“I think I would have liked to have you as queen.”
Well. Talk about compliments.
“Take care of yourself, okay, Loki?”
“For you, Doctor Foster, I'll do my best.”
Jane found herself hoping their paths crossed again... but under better circumstances. To put the bad memories aside, for once, maybe make some decent ones.